Got here yesterday (Sunday). Going to take a zero here and try and
clear up a spot of foot trouble. Great town so far, everyone is real
friendly. Lots of trail angels, too.
Next town stop is agua dulce.
Started at mile 317, finished at mile 344. Did 26.4 to mcdonald’s by
515. Stuffed my face with 30 chicken nuggets, a big angus burger,
fries, a couple cokes and a large chocolate milkshake. Delicious.
The photo is silverwood lake. It was eerie coming into the reservoir
from the desert. You crest a ridge and there it is.
Followed Deep Creek for most of today. The name is certainly not a
misnomer as it is by far the largest amount of water I have seen
flowing on the PCT. We started at mile 297 this morning and zipped 9.5
miles to 306.6 where we took a dip in Deep Creek and Deep Creek Hot
Springs. Shortly thereafter we dodged a bunch of old nude hippies and
proceeded to cover the remaining miles to camp at Mile 317.
Met the storied Meadow Mary at highway 173. She’s a trail angel who
waits at road crossings for hikers. Ate an awesome piece of watermelon
and talked for a bit.
All in all a great day. Tomorrow is an epic McDonald’s marathon. We’re
doing 25 miles to I-15 and the mcdonalds there. I’m getting at least
60 nuggets.
We decided to make it an easy day today and did 16 to deep creek from
our camp at mile 281. We got here early (3pmish) after a long lunch
(12 to 2). There’s a big footbridge spanning the creek, too. 90 or so
feet long, at least. We’re camped on the shore of the creek below the
bridge.
Took a swim in the creek and it was fantastic. A little chilly, just
how I like it.
Tomorrow we’ll bust through the 300 mile mark around 730 or 8 am. At
306.6 is deep creek hot springs, we’ll probably take a break there for
a bit, too.
Life is great.
Slackpacked (basically day hiked) the 24 mile section from 38 to van
dusen rd today. 24 miles without a full pack goes fairly quick but its
still damn tiring. We’re back at the hostel tonight and tomorrow
midday we leave.
Big bear has been good to us, I really like it here. Plenty of awesome
trail angels, good size markets, a good outfitter and the (new) big
bear hostel is fantastic. Anyone coming into big bear, stay at the big
bear hostel! Nature’s Inn is old news!
Southbounding that section we missed was interesting, we got to meet
all kinds of hikers we would’ve missed northbounding it. Slows you
down but its all good.
Life is good!
Taking a joyous zero in big bear. Last night was an enjoyable dinner
at an italian place near the hostel. A chicken parm never tasted so
good. Then after we got back we sat around with the other hikers in
the big bear hostel (joe, fusia, Daniel, etc) and talked for awhile.
Good times.
Sorting out my resupply just now. Dropped an easy $60 at the Von’s
here for five days of food and a bunch of fruit and yogurt for
tomorrow’s breakfast. Life is good!
Made it to big bear, ate a huge dinner at the Italian place near the
hostel. About to crash now–big bear hostel rules!
More tomorrow.
Yesterday’s 24 makes today’s 20 look sub par but they were hard-
earned. Started at the Mesa Wind Farm around 7 (way late). Wasted time
at whitewater creek (fantastic amount of water — practically a real
stream!). Breaker for lunch at mission creek then pressed on up the
valley a ways. A lot of water today, too! Hard day overall. Expect to
be in big bear city by Sunday morning.
The weather has been getting warmer and its really making the miles
difficult. We’re almost at 6000 ft tonight and will break 8000
tomorrow, though, so that should help.
Crossed I-10 today. Did the epic 15+ mile downhill 6000+ ft elevation
change today starting at 630am. Hit the fountain at the base of the
mountain at noon (a 15 by 12!) hung out in the micro shade by the
fountain until 230 and then did the 4 more miles to I-10 (through the
damn sand) and took a break under the bridge and surprise surprise
there’s a cooler there with soda! I had two cool pepsis and a sit. At
430 we headed out for the last leg to Mesa Wind Farm. Uphill but late
in the day so fairly easy.
The wind farm people were there, to our surprise. They invited us in
and we talked a bit and they watered us up. Fantastic. And then on the
way out they offered us leftover burgers! Amazing. Best day ever!
Camped on a shoulder along the trail past black mountain road. Amazing
view.
Getting out of idyllwild was quite difficult. My original plan was to
try Fuller Ridge on the actual PCT but that was scrapped for certain
when I found out that due to the Apache Peak fire, the devil’s slide
trail was closed. I know the Marion ridge trail was also closed and
I’m fairly certain the deer creek trail was out as well. That
effectively ended the argument about skipping Fuller Ridge since
unless you want to waiting idyllwild for an indeterminate amount of
time, there’s no other access to fuller ridge.
So I secured a ride to black mountain road and Julian, Sarong and I
(the notorious Joker) all headed out to black mountain. All said and
done we hardly walked any miles today, but we are camped on the PCT
and back on track. 75 miles to Big Bear!
Good thing, too. Quite the surge of hiker trash in idyllwild due to
the fires and snow!
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